CURIOUS TRAVELLER - Who travels around the world. With its c - Lot 196

CURIOUS TRAVELLER - Who travels around the world. With its curious history of maintenance materials. By Sr le B. Paris, François Clousier, 1664. 2 parts in one vol. in-4, (8) ff. 424 pp. ; 360 pp., provenance crossed out on the title page, brown calf gran. of the ep., back with nerves ornamented, upper headdress missing, lower flesh partly split, blunt corners. First edition. Wrongly attributed to Vincent Le Blanc who died around 1640, who made a circumnavigation voyage, first published in 1648. The Sieur le B. obtained a privilege in December 1662 which he ceded to François Clousier. He dedicated his work to Louis Le Vau, the King's first architect. Le Voyageur curieux is a compilation, as he himself says, of data delivered in a jumble of data on the geography, ethnology, politics, economy, natural history, of most of the known regions of his time. The author has ''drawn them either from the travels of the Spanish, English and Dutch print-outs, or from the Relations of our Fathers who travelled to various places in the world.'' From page 255 onwards we extend: ''The Maintenance of the Curious Traveller.'' A collection of essays on religion, physical phenomena, moral actions, politics, containing many of the most curious received opinions and beliefs.